Saturday, February 23, 2008

A Nice Brunch A Nice Bunch

Did McDonald’s just go stingy? Since few weeks ago, I find it impossible to access to its free wi-fi. Although the status was ‘Connected’ but it also said having problem finding the server. In addition, TOT Wi-Fi appeared and when I connect to it, I could access to it…now I just need to buy those pre-paid cards. Horrible! Just don’t understand this companies who initially provide such free facilities to get the crowd in but once the crowd is in, they begin to charge…

Anyway…I was having my breakfast at McDonald’s this morning and it kinda make me miss the breakfast I had in Garden Center Café in Pnomh Penh. As it was listed as one the restaurant to visit, I made it a point to go there last Sunday for brunch. Oh…did I tell you I was in Cambodia last weekend? Okay…will talk about it much later…but this entry is about the nice café.

From the hotel, I took a motorbike taxi to the Independent Mausoleum, which was quite a remarkable structure. From there, according to the guide, I would need to walk for a bit, turning here and there. After 5 minutes, I passed by a small restaurant called Garden Center Café 2. According to the guide, it had to be a few more blocks ahead. Perhaps this is an imitation…so I walked. Regretfully as I reached there, the café was nowhere to be seen, which I then realized, the café must have moved. So I walked back.

Tired I was but once I got in, I just knew I’ll love it. Small and nicely decorated, it only had less than 15 tables, both sides of the wall were filled with arts, some are oil paintings, some are modern arts. Although there are a few guests, with one being a family of 8, the overall ambience was relatively quiet. The entrance to the café was decorated with pots of potted plants. Despite only having the fan, I don’t really felt hot. It was quite comfy. In fact, sitting inside, I felt I was in a small European town considering all the guests except me, were in Caucasians, that is until the Japanese family came.

The menu was aplenty…from waffles to pancakes to French toast. I ordered the Pancake set which comes with 2 eggs (I had it poached), a bowl of home made yoghurt and a pot (a large pot) of Chamomile tea.

It was a very enjoyable meal, the pancake was soft and warm…just nice to cover it with butter and maple syrup. The eggs were also nicely done. And the pot of tea was really a large pot. So for the price of USD4, I felt the breakfast was quite worthy.

The service was also quite good. I believed most of the guest are either tourist or regular patrons. The staff command of English was good and quite knowledgeable as well. For example, if I were to ask for HONEY in a café in Thai for my Camomile tea, I might got a blank stare in return. Command of English is one, but when your main clientele are generally Caucasians, I do believed having a good command of the English language as well as getting familiar with the condiments to go with different type of food are required. No? Well, that’s another story to gozz about.

Anyway, if you do happen to visit Pnomh Penh, just make sure you give this nice café a visit. It’s located along Street 57, near Sihanouk Boulevard. And of course, after completing the meal, you can take the motorbike taxi to the Russian market as well.